[Closed] We gonna rock this house until we knock it down

[the_effect_she_has]

WHO: Katniss Everdeen, Pel Ashara, Cullen Rutherford, Jim the Messenger (NPC), The Harding Scouts (NPC)
WHAT: Dueling. Fereldan style.
WHEN: 14th of Wintersmarch
WHERE: Skyhold.
NOTES: Violence. Racial slurs against elves.

For all the training, there was still a lot of building to work. Even though were plenty of willing volunteers out of the refugees, sometimes even they needed help. So that was how Katniss dragged the other scouts into helping out some of the refugees to work on what the surgeons wanted to make the formal infirmary. Jim the Scout showed up with a message, and yes, that's pretty much how he got dragged in as well.

Hours later, sweaty and with their hair mussed, hungry as bears (Katniss was never going to get away from bears, sigh), Katniss took the lot of them to the Tavern for dinner on her. She knew Lace would appreciate it if she fed the 'kids' before sending them off for the night, and the Creators only knew when Jim ate. He only seemed to take meals when Cullen did, after all.

So our scene, a table in the tavern with the Scouts - Atisha, Feran, John and Celise , Jim, and Katniss. The Scouts and Jim were of course, chattering away happily to one another and poking questions at Katniss, which she batted away with a roll of her eyes, as she dug into her stew.

" -- No, I am not going to tell you if I've ever seen Harding leaving Bruce's tent and NO, I am not going to tell you who is seen leaving my hut. Maker, what are all of you, twelve?" She snorted, before she held up a finger. "No wait, I can confirm one person - Buttercup. Buttercup leaves the hut as often as he wants."

Jim shuddered slightly, "I... can confirm that. He once sat on me for an hour and wouldn't let me leave until I fed him something. Scout Everdeen, your cat is terrifying."

"I keep telling Harding we should use him as a secret weapon -- but she says we can't take cats into battle." A heavy dramatic sigh, before she pointed a finger at one of the Scouts as she opened her mouth, "No."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask!" Celise protested.

"I know it has to be a different variation on whether or not Lace and Bruce are bedding one another, and I have told you -- " She frowned, as a shadow fell over the table and they all looked up to see a tall blonde woman with fancily braided hair stood over them, looking all too intently at Katniss. Her armor was fancy gilt, the kind where her breasts were clearly defined with the appropriate, ah, holders. Katniss lifted an eyebrow, " - can I help you, serah?"

The woman smiled, and it was not a nice smile. She spoke with , "You are Scout Katniss Everdeen."

"Yes, I am." Katniss said slowly, one eyebrow staying up, "And you are?"

"I'm Sergeant Alyshia Rettly, of the Fifth Platoon." The woman tilted her head, "Heard about you."

Katniss looked from the other scouts, to Jim, who looked as baffled as she felt, "Ah, well, that's ... nice?"

"Yeah, my boys and me - " and she nodded to a group of soldiers who looked like they had been dragged through the Fallow Mire, face first, "We just wanted to know - how does it feel to get a cushy job like Scout?

The two tables by them went silent. A fork dropped, as everyone turned to watch this unfold.

Then Jim tittered, and the Scouts burst into laughter. Katniss clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth, looking down at her bowl so she wouldn't laugh either, before she rose to her feet slowly, "Look, Alyshia - "

"Sergeant Alyshia." The woman huffed, flushing red at the peals of laughter that were still rolling from her pronouncement.

"Right. Sergeant Alyshia." Katniss resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "You're ... probably new around here? So you probably don't know that Commander Rutherford really doesn't give out cushy assignments. Certainly not to scouts."

"Especially not to scouts." John piped in, popping a grape into his mouth, with a smirk. Celise, Atisha and Feran just shook their heads. Anyone who thought being a scout was something 'grand' clearly hadn't slept in a tent by themselves while they were trying to figure out the positions of bigger, badder things not much more than a farmer's field away in the darkness.

"Yeah, right. Everyone knows the scouts always get the easiest jobs, while us foot soldiers are left trudging through the muck." Alyshia sniffed again, looking down her nose at Katniss. "But I guess Lace Harding's soft on her little chicklets -- and the Commander's soft on rabbit whores."

Katniss arched an eyebrow again, before she looked over at Jim, speaking tartly, "Jim, you're Commander Rutherford's personal messenger. Just how small and fluffy mammal prostitutes has the Commander had in his office lately that he needs to be freed from?"

The others snickered again, while Jim pretended to think about it "Ah ... going to go with a goose-egg there, Scout Everdeen." He held his finger and his thumb in a circle. "Zero. In fact only person in there is you and since you are a Scout, and his girlfriend? That sort of means you can't be a rabbit. Or a whore, for that matter."

Katniss turned back to the other woman, and lifted her hands up, "So as you can see, you are barking up the wrong tree in more ways than one. I will be happy to tell Commander Rutherford that you feel like you've gotten a raw deal by being a racist bully. I'm sure he'll be sympathetic to your horrendous plight."

Ohhhh, she could bet what his thoughts on the matter would be. Make even gold on it too -

That thought was cut off, when Alysha's armed gauntlet slammed into her face, making her see stars, then black, then red as she opened her gaze. It was hard enough to knock her backwards, but not off her feet. She stared at the blood gushing out of ... where? Her nose, and her mouth, as Lady Alyshia hissed at her, "The gall of a blunt-eared whore like you to speak to me this way! The Commander may have shamed himself with you, you half-blooded bitch, but as soon as he's tired of playing around with animals, he'll be looking for a real woman and - "

Sergeant Alysha looked around, because it had gone silent again, and all eyes were turned, but not on her. They were all locked on Katniss, a mixture of dread and anticipation. One Scout wet her lips, "Katniss -- Katniss remember, you can't kill her."

"I'm ... not going to kill her." Katniss rasped, as she looked up, her hand coated in her own blood, her nose unbroken but still bleeding, her cut lip, and her too-cold grey eyes. Sergeant Alysha's own brown eyes widened. "I'm going to show her just how soft a half-blooded bitch Scout is."

"...Oh." Was Jim's quiet, strangled reply. "That's, ah, that's better?"

Sergeant Alysha was so transfixed by the words sliding out of Katniss's blood-covered mouth, that she did not see the blood-coated fist swinging back to slam her right into her jaw, sending her tripping backwards over one of the smaller tables -- and unfortunately putting her right against the window. She let out a choked scream as Katniss came running up to her, grabbed the wooden rafter and swung forward. Kicked out with both booted feet, right into the middle of that nice open space between her armored breasts, to send her flying through the window.

The scouts and Jim watched, silently, as Katniss turned to look at Alyshia's soldiers. They all looked someplace else, abruptly. Katniss glared for a second longer, before she followed Alyshia out the window. They all then heard Alyshia yelping, "No - wait - not my -!" And the solid clang of someone getting kicked again, right in the breastplate.

Jim clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth, before he slid his chair back. "... So - I'm going to go get the Commander." And with that? He headed out in a flat run towards the door.

Atisha looked at the window, and then at her fellow scouts. "I'm gonna go get Lead Scout Harding." And with that, she was off like a shot.

"I ... think I'll go find Lady Rutherford." John scooted out in Atisha's wake.

Feran and Celise looked at one another, and said at the same time, "Mistress Pel" before they too, left in a great hurry.

Leaving behind a very quiet tavern, outside of the bartender who was looking out his window and sighing, yelling out to Katniss from where she was hunting Alyshia down across the courtyard, "You owe me a window, Everdeen!"

Comments

[mythalenaste]

"Katniss--KATNISS!"

Feran and Celise found her, and she's running full speed towards the scene.

"Katniss, STOP!"

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss had made a promise to the scouts, and Jim, that she wouldn't kill Alyshia -- and she wasn't going to. However, she had absolutely no intentions whatsoever to letting the bigger woman hit her in the face again, so yes, she was absolutely using every trick to keep the woman on the ground.

And right now, she just happened to have her knees in Alyshia's shoulder-blades, pinning her to the ground while she bent one arm backwards. Her grey eyes were still cold, cold as a winter's day, but at least the blood had started to slow into drips.

The moment that she heard Pel's voice though, telling her to stop? She released the other woman's arm and pushed herself up.

"And that's the difference between animals, and someone who is actually humane." She spat down at Alyshia's back. "I know when to stop when I've gone too far."

[mythalenaste]

"No, you do not." Pel storms through and grabs Katniss by the arm. "Get her to the surgeon," she orders one of the bystanders. "Now."

Now she starts dragging Katniss away from the scene, if she will let her, clearly fuming.

[the_effect_she_has]

"I do too!" Was Katniss's ever so mature reply, "I stopped hitting her and just then I was making sure she stayed on the ground and wouldn't hit me when I wasn't looking! That's growth, Pel."

She does, however, let the older woman pull her away, as she finally brought her hand up to her mouth again, and with her free hand started to dig out her handkerchief to stuff against her face. "I don't know why you're mad at me. She started it. I just finished it."

John was already hauling up Alyshia, none too gently, to get her over to the surgeon. Man was stronger than he looked, Katniss thought to herself, before she frowned and turned her gaze to where Pel was dragging her.

"Where in the name of the Creators are you dragging me?"

[mythalenaste]

"Away," Pel says sternly. "Where you'll cool off. You didn't finish it. I finished it. Or didn't you hear me telling you to stop?"

[perseverances]

Scout Jim had gotten the Commander as he had promised to do so, and when the scout had explained to Cullen exactly what had happened and was happening, Cullen took leave of his office and ran down the stairs and into the courtyard, hauling himself up toward the Tavern where everyone had gathered.

He pushed through the crowd that had been gathering to watch the spectacle, raising his voice to tell the entire group to disperse before they find themselves with extra duties. He had to shout at a few others who seemed to be more hard of hearing than everyone else. Today was already shaping up to be such a lovely day.

"Blessed Andraste, what in the world is going on here?!" Someone was going to get in trouble for this.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss sighed around her cloth. Right, now she was going to get lectured.

Which was now compacted that now she was going to get lectured by the Commander, as well.

"Pel ... you'd best just drag me over there." Katniss sighed, as she took her handkerchief away from her face. Might as well get hit by both catapults at once.

[mythalenaste]

"You're going to the surgeon. Commander, if you don't mind following." Pel didn't see much, but she saw enough. She's not about to throw Katniss under the bus in front of the Commander, but Katniss isn't getting off scot-free either.

[perseverances]

He motions for Pel to lead on, because right now he's not even sure how to react. Stupid squabbles like this shouldn't be happening when there were more important things to worry about.

...also he might not have the best picture of the story yet. Jim didn't say too much.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss was surprised, but grateful, that if she was going to get lectured at least she wasn't going to get called out on it in front of everyone but the surgeon.

She put the handkerchief to her face again, because come on, her face was covered in blood. At least it was her own.

The surgeon came out, lips pressed together, "I heard the tussle and - Great Maker, what did she do, hit you with an iron bar?"

Katniss made her face, "No, gauntlet."

"Well, not sure which one of you got the worst of it. She's covered in bruises, all over her chest. Over here, Everdeen."

Katniss moved to have her nose inspected, then told her wash her face, while the surgeon went to get her clean gauze. Katniss washed her face gratefully, before touching at her lip gingerly, then her nose. Looked over at the other two. "All right. Who wants to start?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel doesn't dopeslap Katniss, but she's fuming. Still. Not her place to lecture when this is really the Commander's prerogative. So she stays silent.

[perseverances]

Cullen has to take a deep breath before calming himself down. He stands back, removed from what the surgeon is doing. He doesn't want to get in their way.

His tone drops dangerously low. "One of you better explain what caused this fight. Now."

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss sucked in a breath, before she stood up straighter. She was, after all, a Scout in the Inquisition and a half-elf. She wasn't going to hide from what she had done."

"Ser ... and Pel." Because Pel wasn't here as a Councilor, just a very angry sister, "What caused the initial part of the fight was that Sergeant Retty accused the Scouts of being soft. I informed her that we were not, and then she said that of course that Harding was soft on her ...chicklets and the Commander was a soft on rabbit whores."

Right she was just going to put her gaze right there on the other side of the room there for a moment, before she continued. "To which, Jim and I both said that the Commander didn't keep company with small fluffy animal prostitutes. I did tell her that I would be happy to bring her complaint to you Commander, as she was having issues with her duties and being a racist bully."

Keep going Everdeen ... "To which, she answered me by hitting me in the face with her gauntlet and calling me a half blooded bitch whore. So safe to say she lost her temper." She met both of their gazes, "... and then I lost mine. I hit her back." Sigh. "... and kicked her out the window. And then she tried to hit me again - so I ... kicked her in the breast-plate. And then she fell down and I pinned her to the ground and twisted her arm behind her so she wouldn't try to hit me again and because I was ... fairly upset to be hit in the face."

All right, there, done. "...and then Pel stopped me before I dis-abled her any further."

[mythalenaste]

Pel's face grows darker as the story goes on, and when the words rabbit whores are spoken, her expression is pure ice. No wonder Katniss lost it. She moves a bit closer to Katniss and touches her shoulder when the story is done. Then she looks at Cullen, awaiting his response.

[perseverances]

If Cullen wasn't the Commander, he'd be acting very differently right now. He's furious. Furious that a soldier would act this way, even going as far as to dragging him into it. He's told his recruits several times about the name calling, especially those toward the elves. They know they're going to be met with harsh punishment.

Instead of yelling, he flexes his hands slowly. He points to the other girl first. "Sergeant, you will report to my office tomorrow morn for your new assignment, and you better pray that I do not send you to the far reaches of Thedas. The rest of the day will be spent assisting the stablehands." A pause. "You are lucky Katniss was lenient on you. I would have not been."

He turns to Katniss then, and while disappointment is written in his face, it's not toward her. She had every right to act the way she did, but he cannot say that in front of everyone else. "You are to report to the tavern to help replace the window you've busted in your tirade."

[the_effect_she_has]

Well, if Katniss had been anyone else at this moment she might have just buried her face into Cullen's chest, or leaned into Pel and covered her face. As it was, she stood at attention, shifting over her eyes to Pel, then over to the Commander again.
He wasn't going to be Cullen until after this was concluded.

From her corner, Alysha groaned, but said weakly, "Yes, Commander Rutherford, ser."

Katniss paused and said it after Retty, before squaring her soldiers, "I ... would also like to apologize for my behavior, Commander, ser -- and Pel. You both have a right to be upset. I promise this won't happen in the future."

Another pause, and she cleared her throat, "... well I will lose my temper but I will try not to kick people through windows. Ser... and Pel."

She saluted, sharply. The surgeon tutted as she came over. "Good - because Retty's bruised from head to toe. You rattled her like dice in a cup, in that armor. She won't have a pleasant time of it, Commander, but she can go help the stablehands."

She took a moment to look at Katniss's nose, and mouth, "After you're done with the window, find a quiet place and apply some ice. Madame Pel, can I trust you to wrap up her hands?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel nods at the healer's words and comes forward to fling an arm around Katniss and pull her into a hard hug.

[perseverances]

"That unpleasantness will remind her not to start fights."

He takes a moment to rub at his face. He's still angry, more at himself for some reason. Mia was right; rumors would let things get out of hand. The Inquisition shouldn't suffer because he wasn't discreet in his private life. The Inquisition should always come first.

He turns to the Healer. "When Retty is well enough, see her to the stables. Katniss, I'll speak with you privately later." He then looks to Pel. "Thank you, for stopping the fight. Maker knows how worse it might have gotten."

Split into two different threads? Katniss and Pel, Cullen and Katniss?

[the_effect_she_has]

Pel had launched herself into her arms, and Katniss blinked in surprise, before she hugged her best friend back tightly. Looking over Pel's shoulder, she pressed her lips together, concern flashing over her face as Cullen rubbed his face. That was never a good thing, that.

"Yes ... ser. As soon as I'm done with the window."

That works!

[mythalenaste]

"As soon as you're done with the window, I'm bandaging your hands," Pel reminds her, releasing her. "I'll try not to keep her long, Cullen."